Andrej Zwitter

Big Data ethics

The speed of development in Big Data and associated phenomena, such as social media, has surpassed the capacity of the average consumer to understand his or her actions and their knock-on effects. We are moving towards changes in how ethics has to be perceived: away from individual decisions with specific and knowable outcomes, towards actions by many unaware that they may have taken actions with unintended consequences for anyone. Responses will require a rethinking of ethical choices, the lack thereof and how this will guide scientists, governments, and corporate agencies in handling Big Data. This essay elaborates on the ways Big Data impacts on ethical conceptions.

United Nations' Legal Framework of Humanitarian Assistance

Since the end of the cold war, the United Nations (UN) System in regard to humanitarian assistance developed incredibly fast. Numerous resolutions of the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council have been adopted and specialized bodies like the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs have been established. Though this forest of humanitarian-related norms within the UN system is constantly developing, two landmark resolutions of the General Assembly are of major importance: (1) An Agenda for Peace (A/RES/47/120[B]) and (2) Strengthening of the coordination of humanitarian emergency assistance of the United Nations (A/RES/46/182). While resolution 47/120 further developed the concept and the UN strategy of humanitarian assistance, the latter resolution took concrete action by creating the position of the Emergency Relief Coordinator and the Inter-Agency Standing Committee. These resolutions prepared the ground for the internationally coordinated humanitarian action we know today.

Human Security, Law and the Prevention of Terrorism

1. Introduction Part 1: Theories 2. Working Definition of Human Security 3. An International Legal Perspective on Prevention of Terrorism and Human Security 4. Human Security Measurement 5. A Root Cause Approach for Political Violence 6. Ideology and the Mobilization of Terrorism 7. Capabilities and Opportunities: From Terrorism to Conflict Part 2: Application 8. Overview of Action by the UN on Terrorism Prevention 9. Humanitarian Aids Constrains of Adressing Root Causes 10. The Comprehensive Root Cause Approach - Application of the Framework Developed 11. Conclusion Appendices

Digitale Demokratie statt Datendiktatur

Big Data, Nudging, Verhaltenssteuerung: Droht uns die Automatisierung der Gesellschaft durch Algorithmen und kunstliche Intelligenz? Ein Appell zur Sicherung von Freiheit und Demokratie.

Big Data Challenges

This book brings together an impressive range of academic and intelligence professional perspectives to interrogate the social, ethical and security upheavals in a world increasingly driven by data. Written in a clear and accessible style, it offers fresh insights to the deep reaching implications of Big Data for communication, privacy and organisational decision-making. It seeks to demystify developments around Big Data before evaluating their current and likely future implications for areas as diverse as corporate innovation, law enforcement, data science, journalism, and food security. The contributors call for a rethinking of the legal, ethical and philosophical frameworks that inform the responsibilities and behaviours of state, corporate, institutional and individual actors in a more networked, data-centric society. In doing so, the book addresses the real world risks, opportunities and potentialities of Big Data.

Humanitarian Action: Global, Regional and Domestic Legal Responses

Humanitarian assistance occurs when local or regional crises prompt international action to alleviate human suffering. In contrast to development aid, humanitarian aid is defined by its short-term focus and the immediacy of intervention. Given its crisis management character, humanitarian assistance presents a pressing challenge for international law because the provision of assistance operates under circumstances which depart from common state-centric understandings of how inter- national politics and international law usually work.To be sure, in the context of humanitarian emergencies processes of inter-state negotiation and consensus-building are dramatically limited by the urgency of the need to assist populations vulnerable to the consequences of natural disaster or armed conflict. Humanitarian Action: Global, Regional and Domestic Legal Responses directly responds to this pressing challenge by providing the first in-depth exploration of legal problems posed by contemporary humanitarian practice. Through two points of departure – one which explores the law and politics of humanitarian action, and the second which explores normative frameworks – this book provides legal professionals, scholars and policy-makers with a unique multidisciplinary resource that will help inform the theory and practice of humanitarian assistance.

Network Governance im Big Data- und Cyber-Zeitalter

The digital domain, technological innovations, and Big Data analytics increasingly shape the lives of millions of individuals, groups, organisation, and societies. This cyber age calls for effective governance to protect the basic interests and needs of individuals and groups. Simultaneously, the very nature of governance is changing. Increasingly policy-making moves away from top-down governance by the state towards more horizontal modes of governance. This paper argues that network in the term network governance needs to be taken seriously in order to reconceptualize power and responsibily in networked societies. Therefore, we combine the literature on governance with social network theory to conceptualise governance in the Cyber Age. It will be argued that dominant modes of governance are inadequate to govern the Cyber domain. Therefore, a novel networked mode of governance is proposed based on the regulation of new power relationships between Cyber actors and civil society.

Big Data zum Nutzen von Gesellschaft und Menschheit

Die Macht der Daten lasst sich fur gute und fur schlechte Zwecke nutzen. Funf Prinzipien fur eine Big-Data-Ethik.

State of Emergency Mapping Project (STEMP)

Staatsnotstandsmechanismen geben der Exekutive einerseits einen erweiterten Handlungsspielraum auch vis-a-vis der Grundrechte und Freiheiten. Andererseits wird dieser Spielraum naturlich durch die Menschenrechte generell und speziell durch Artikel 4 des Internationalen Pakts uber burgerliche und politische Rechte (IPbpR) reguliert und eingeschrankt. Bis jetzt haben sich qualitative Studien zum Staatsnotstand mit politischen Motiven und Eingriffe in nicht derogierbare Menschenrechte beschaftigt. Die State of Emergency Mapping Project (STEMP) Datenbank erweitert diese Einsichten durch eine systematische Analyse von Staatsnotstandserklarungen auf Grundlage von Artikel 4. Die Datenbank umfasst mehr als 300 Staatsnotstande weltweit in einem Zeitraum von 1995–2015. Die Resultate der Datenanalyse demonstrieren einen beachtlichen Unterschied zwischen menschengemachten und Naturkatastrophen, was Dauer und Gebrauch der Staatsnotstandregelungen betrifft. Staatsnotstande aufgrund von menschengemachte Katastrophen (z. B. internen Konflikten oder terroristischen Anschlagen) haben eine signifikant langere Dauer und hohere Wahrscheinlichkeit verlangert zu werden. Auch unterscheiden sich die zwei Arten von Notstanden dadurch, dass jeweils andere Menschenrechte derogiert werden. Des Weiteren zeigen speziell lateinamerikanische Staaten, im Gegensatz zu Staaten wie Agypten, Israel, oder Algerien, eine hohe Bereitschaft, dem Menschenrechtsausschuss erklarte Staatsnotstande zu melden.

The Network Effect on Ethics in the Big Data Age

This chapter emphasises the radical departure that the Big Data age signifies for researchers, corporates, and public bodies alike. It argues that the nature of Big Data and the means of analysis raise their own specific ethical problems that nowadays go beyond the privacy consideration of the individual. Instead, these changes raise questions about the privacy of communities against the collecting and tracking of group and network data, the security from manipulation, and education for appropriate internet use. The chapter reflects on whether our ethical frameworks still match the Big Data age. It concludes that we might need to redevelop individualistic ethical norms to match a network logic of power and responsibility.